Sunday, December 02, 2007

Hurry om Hurry !

To me , getting off a plane is always interesting . Besides giving me a chance to smuggle out the in flight magazine, It kinda reflects the times we live in . It goes like this . The tyres hit the strip with a slight thud , bouncing off the ground a couple of times and waking up the old women who had dozed off . The pressure of the air against its extended wings soon slows it down . It glides slowly on the strip , making a couple of lazy turns while some lady on the announcement thanks you for flying with them even though they made you wait 4 hours at the airport and tells you the temperature outside is way too low than you hope it is . Now the plane stops down . And then , the interesting part starts .

People jump off their seats , brushing their bottoms against each other faces . Uff . Excuse me . Watch it . Will you please pull off your suitcase off my toe ? Pulling open the flaps over their heads . Switching on their cellphones . Someone yells "What ? You havent sent the car ? What the hell! ". Before Anu Malik can steal another tune , most people stand scrunched in the aisle , all forming an untidy queue , looking with tense eyes towards the end of the plane , wondering why the doors aint opened yet .

I still lie pushed down in my seat , while maroon5 in my ears croons that she will be loved (Nice floating song .Chahiye to bol de. I hate piracy , starting tommorow)

And as I lie in my seat , watching people stand on each other's feet , I wonder , jaldi kya hai yaar ? This plane blows up in three minutes ?

So many people are in so much hurry . That guy in a silver Swift behind my car who is honking is in a hurry to get to his office ( Yaar overtake karte hue gaali kyun deta hai ? Accha hindi ki gaali to mat de ) . Students are in a hurry to read their chapters before they face the exams . My boss is in a hurry to get that report .That waiter at McDonalds is in a hurry to serve table number 4. People sitting at table number 4 are in a hurry to eat what comes to the table. People at the boarding gate are in a hurry to get onto the plane . When it lands , they are in a hurry to get out of it. Everybody is in a hurry to get somewhere . Few people want to stay in the moment they are in.

Now I don't know . Maybe these guys know where they want to get to. They see where they need to get to and they want to get there fast . You see , driven , focussed people. Achievers . Desh ko aage badane wale log. People you see shaking hands with white people on NDTV Profit . Maybe I am just a slow guy who likes to listen to music and type down words which interest nobody while the world around me reaches for the stars . You see , I don't have a problem with the 'wanting to achieve things' thing . Even I want to achieve things , even if they are a vegetable burger with cheese , and a TV remote , and someone who shares all that with me .

But what I don't understand is that why hurry ? Jaldi kya hai . Kidhar jaana hai ? I mean , life is not in the future . Life is now . This moment .I mean , it's like..

When I was in school , people told me happiness is getting 90% in board exams. We know that , kid .

When I got those 90% , they told me happiness was getting into a top engineering college. ( Note kiya , kitna intelligent hoon main ?)

When I got that , they told me that happiness is definitely getting into IIM. Pakka . Sachi . Muchi. Confirmed.

When I did that , happiness was defined as getting out of IIM and earning a salary which is in seven figures. Arre 100% happiness yehi hai . USA mein researchers bhee yehi kehte hai.

Now When I have done that , happiness is ? Hello ! What is it nowwww ? Bol do kaka . Kidhar jaana hai ab ?

So ladiesh and gentlemans , now that the world has been telling me what to do , this is what I have learnt - all the above stuff is important , but happiness is something they dont need to tell you about . It is something you feel . And only you decide what makes you happy . When others don't know where you want to be , how can they tell you how to get there ?

Like , for me , happiness is..

On a lazy Sunday , I watch a jim carrey flick on TV , eat a full lunch , and watch another jim carrey movie.

When ma asks me to take a bath and I put my arm around her shoulders and say "Chill , ma.Do dinn hee to hue hai."

When I say stupid things to someone who would not think "Huh? Isko problem kya hai?."

Sitting in my balcony on a December morning and eat an orange and squeeze the orange peel in the left eye of my sister. Right eye mein bhee .

Talking to someone who understands me , and accepts me even when I am all boring .

Playing chess with Papa , and beating him at it too . ( We dont do that anymore , he is tired oflosing)

Caring for someone I want to care for.

Meeting a bunch of friends over a couple of huge pizzas and crack pathetic jokes about our college professors and why worst guys get the best girls.

Happiness is just , being me .

So you see , what makes me happy is stuff I have not achieved , but stuff , which , I already have , had all the way along . So I know I need to achieve things , but hey , there is no hurry .Because I need to achieve things to survive , but to be happy , not much is needed . Some music and a vegetable burger , with cheese , will do just fine for now.

133 comments:

Aaaah!! lovely post abhinav. i think i can make this a template for ur posts abhi se. each post just gets better and better. u present some very important fundas of life in that trademark wit and humor of yours. its amazing!! after reading ur post i am left staring open mouthed and thinking "how true!!"may u always be happy Abhinav. and success and happiness have nothing to do with each other. quoting emerson "to know that even one life has breathed easier because u have lived - that is to have succeeded!!"and u dude have definitely succeeded based on that definition!! :)

A good read as usual.. And something we all relate to, especially, the 90%, College, IIM, 7 FIgure salary and the never ending list. It just reminded me of something I had read somewhere:

At age 4, success is... not peeing in your pants. At age 12, success is... having friends. At age 16, success is... having a driver's license. At age 20, success is... having sex. At age 35, success is... having money. ....At age 50, success is... having money. At age 60, success is... having sex. At age 70, success is... having a driver's license. At age 75, success is... having friends. At age 80, success is... not peeing in your pants.

Another good post... and the best thing is that i have tried to ask this to myself a lot of times.. and always thought who wud be crazy enough to think this way... good to see there is someone crazy other than me who thinks the same way! :-)

As usual a good post with all the typical style of urs :).... It's nice that you are able to put ur GREAT thoughts so casually and with wonderful sense of humor/wit.Please keep on writing ... as and when it gives u happiness...

One thing i noticed : Most of ur readers are in a hurry again to read ur post very often.... yaar, jaldi kya hai... jab post hoga padh lenge ;)

Exams are nearing so I read your post in such a hurry that I can only grab words like hurry plane, lazy me,old children,pathetic IIM,intelligent ladies,worst guys,shaking burger,hurry mein sab kuch mix ho gya..................but I could clearly read that u didn't bathed for 2 consecutive days

I've been readin thru yr blogs fr a week now ... n' i mean all of them ... ! bit by bit .. and I cant help but wish there were people like you around me ... !! I havent seen someone live life they way do in a long time =/

well well....could'nt agree with you more. but you know you can say all this after having been there done all that. if you were not from IIM C or would not have acheived all that you did.... YOU WOULD NOT BE WRITING THIS ARTICLE.All the same , good piece of writing.

What's happened to you Abhi? Getting philosophical ! Kisi ladki ne ditch mar diya kya? On a saner note, the enlightenment that "Happiness is just , being me " is equivalent to Mokhsha. If you have realized it, you deserve it. Life is too short to live passing off as someone else.

And it is always the little things that count. A variegated list of things that make me happy is here Will wait for a riposte wise crack. It's been a while since you visited my space.

for the last few dayz, mera computer bimaar tha. I couldnt chech my mails, complete assignments and all.....but what concerned me the most was that i couldnt read your posts. well, now that it is fine, i am happy.for me happiness is also, reading your posts!!!!!

nice one Abhi!most of the times i too get into same state...when find myslf that running for those things which others too running for but when notice it carfuly find that nahhh happiness is wht i left behind.Anyways thnx for reminding all fundas again! :)

I completely identify with your definition of happiness. We get so busy chasing our dreams that we don't even get the time to appreciate and be thankful for the things we have been blessed with.P.S. I don't understand that you actually have to search for a partner, considering the number of lovey dovey messages and marriage proposals you get on your blog.

Don't know how I stumbled over here, but your post is really good. True words..we generally(I cant say always) have everything that it takes to be happy..I use to think that how can god create a world full of so many disparities (money, health etc etc) and still give every human being this perpetual hunger of HAPPINESS. Had this HAPPINESS mere by product of some other entity no way everyone can have it without some kind of clash. Missing link was this line of thought "Generally we have what it takes to be happy!!"

Oh!! you seem to be an immature guy as yet - True happiness is when you watch 'Om Shanti Om' and 'Goal' back to back - the elevated feelin of having given up everythin in life is tooo good to resist...ask me for any further directions;) :)

Happiness.. hmm.. true, what u said. As we were growing up, people kept saying happiness is this.. happiness is that.. but nobody said seek happiness in what u already have. I guess those days we were all like Will Smith's character in "The Pursuit of Happyness", who says maybe happiness is something we can only pursue but can never really have.

For me, all that has changed now. Happiness is now. It's like...some people see the glass is half empty, some see it as half full... but I wanna know who the hell is drinking my beer!!! Now!

abe, i had tought of this long ago. figured it out after 12th, yeah even i was late. but, i knew.....these guys are foolin us, there is no happiness in "make or break" 10th std, 12th std, college, postgrad, years. happiness is now ababy..... enjoy...

im happy.

im not IIM abcdefghij......z.

but im happy.

i am amlan's friend (if u want references), yeah the same guy who is in a hurry to be the 1st one to comment.

For me,Happiness is being close to the people who care!!Im happy wen im with my family,frndz,etc. Waking up each morning to warm hugs and sleeping cudddled up,sometimes all four of us on a bed,playing carrom,laughing,miming the neighbours,and what not! *touchwood*

dude u must be reading a lot of spiritual stuff. trust me dont read that because it makes u unhappy because it keeps reminding u of ur misery. live in the moment and dont daydream. daydreams make u unhappy.

oh u got married or what....arey what abt that girl..she was so different blab blab and all that...most of the times i feel u are one ma ka chamcha kinda perosn...ma ma ma....were u a cow in purve janma..i like u but hate u for soem reason...maybe becoz u are so stupid and that IIM ka tag....all iims and iits are 1 huge rascals

I would like to put this as the best post from you that I have read till date... Even I have been constantly defining external parameters for my happiness, I don't know if somebody conditioned me to think like that or I myself thought that way... But after all this, I realize it hardly makes much difference, happiness cannot be parametrized, it is felt and sensed all throughout life... I now believe and follow that there is no way to happiness, but happiness is the way. And dear the time that has gone by just never comes back, so we must live every moment. I now miss all that I did sometime back and that helps me to make the most of the time that is left to spend.

Good to know that somebody else also thinks alike, who stops to see life from a distance and is not in the mindless race to prove don't know what...

really forced me to introspect... but as some of the other folks pointed out...you are pondering over these things because you achieved all your dreams (90% in noards, top engg. college, iim, 7fig. salary)

which leads me to make a seemingly incorrect hypothesis :Successful people have trouble defining happiness.

And, strangely reminds me of this quote which was a story/poem, in our english cbse text in class 9/10

"Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed"

inspired by this slightly senti & philosophical outpouring ( which i loved btw) i am hoping to finally pen down, some thoughts on happiness & life itself, which have been whirling around in my head for a while now.

Quite right, Abhi..We are just in too much of a hurry to get too many tihngs in life. A slow down helps in putting things in their own persepctive. I like the slogan - "Go Slow". Life remains a Pursuit of Happiness...

I'm not so sure. Of cos haven't experienced life as much as you, but I believe you take stock of those little things that give you happiness only after taken down the big ones. Would doing all those stuff(orange, pizza, chess, jim carrey) be of the same importance if you hadn't achieved 90%, nice engg college, IIM, and seven figures. The fact that you got them all is the reason why you have the audacity of looking over them, into the minor details of life.

Oscar wilde has said.. we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars..!!hey.. u have a nice blog :) all of us kno.. happiness is in the present.. bt hw to make our present happy? by workin for our future right? or workin in the past for the present.. tht makes the present the past of the future.. so u have to work.. whtever.. zada tension nahi leneka.. nice post :)

hey. ws just going thru your blog. hardly read your post. actually i saw the no. of comments 95!! n i said. whoa let me post something about my blog here. (hehe ;) )coz i was feeling a little lazy to read such a long post. then i though 95 comments! kuch toh likha hogaa..... n i'm glad i readit.. gr8 post man!! seriously, you are pretty good..great thoughts.. happiness is being in the moment.. n i agree, with the flight scene, everybody's in a hurry. that is senseless hurry. when ur like in an emergency (like the kind when ur damn lazy n don't do it til there's like 5 min left. n that's when u rush things.) but u have to be focussed na. u got into engg, IIM n all. arent u happy about that all that? u did what everyone else said, n youre happy.in that case you're lucky too na. coz thts what u wanted to do also. right/? i dunno where this isgoing.i'm just typin..anyway good post.nowwvisit my blog too (heheh i had to say that ;) )

This is the first time I read your blog. Just happened to come across it while I was reading someone else's. You are a good writer man. Most of your feelings reflect what I have felt all my life. The hurry reminds me of the question that Shankaracharya asked "tatah kim?" meaning uske baad kya ? keep it up... you got a name added to your fan list.

do i have to say it again u r a master with wit humor n words..at last...ur posts get better n better ..i m actually wondering howcum u r still single...cnt be possible..cmon any girl would give her right arm for a guy with a sensibility and sense of humor like u ....u can make a weeping spirit roll with laughter and still reach out n make him say... 'HOW TRUE' just y didn't I ever think of it....

Hey abhinav, I just can't stop reading your posts. Particularly this one was so like me.If you wouldn't have written it down, and I wouldn't have read it, definitely sometime in the future, I would have written something like this. But, of course, it wouldn't have been as great a piece as you have put down. Those "hindi" phrases were just perfectly placed.

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